Leadership Resource: Living as Missionary Disciples

Living as
Missionary Disciples
provides dioceses and parishes and other church ministries with a road map to
"new paths for the Church's journey" of evangelization. It is not intended to
provide a ready-made program for a parish to follow or a detailed strategic
plan to implement. Rather, it offers principles that dioceses and parishes can
apply to their efforts in evangelization and missionary discipleship.

New Evangelization

"It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade." Mark 4: 31-32

What is the New Evangelization?

The New Evangelization calls each of us to deepen our faith, believe in the Gospel message and go forth to proclaim the Gospel. The focus of the New Evangelization calls all Catholics to be evangelized and then go forth to evangelize. In a special way, the New Evangelization is focused on 're-proposing' the Gospel to those who have experienced a crisis of faith.Pope Benedict XVI called for the re-proposing of the Gospel "to those regions awaiting the first evangelization and to those regions where the roots of Christianity are deep but who have experienced a serious crisis of faith due to secularization."1 The New Evangelization invites each Catholic to renew their relationship with Jesus Christ and his Church.

The New Evangelization offers hope

The 2008 Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) study "Sacraments Today: Belief and Practice Among U.S. Catholics," provides a glimpse into the beliefs, practices and attitudes of U.S. Catholics. According to the study, only 23% of U.S. Catholics regularly attend Mass once a week, while 77% self-identify as proud to be Catholic. These statistics point to the need for the New Evangelization.

In the spirit of the New Evangelization, it is our hope that the resources on this page will yield even greater harvests for Christ in the future so that all people can dwell in the shade.
Pope Benedict XVI and the New Evangelization:

Announcement of the Year of Faith October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013: Porta Fidei

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